1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sunroof apparatus, and in particular, to a sunroof apparatus that can prevent forgetting to close a lid of which a tilt-up position is set to be intermediate in a longitudinal movement range thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicular sunroof apparatus is arranged with a lid that is movable in a vehicle-longitudinal direction along an opening formed in a vehicular roof, to thereby open and close the opening (like Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open Publication No. 8-5852). The lid is configured to have, on the way of longitudinal movement, a full-close position where it shuts up the opening, a full-open position where it is accommodated in the roof, behind the opening, to make the opening released free, and a tilt-up position where its rear end rises above an opening plane.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9copening planexe2x80x9d means an imaginary plane that interconnects opening edges.
Conventionally, the full-close position of the lid is set to be intermediate in a longitudinal movement range of a lid slider, and the slider is moved forward for the lid to have the tilt-up position, or backward for the lid to have the full-open position.
The lid is required to meet a positioning condition to be severe enough to secure water-tightness and prevent wind-cutting sounds. At the full-close position, the positioning condition should be severest.
In the conventional art, however, the full-close position is located at an intermediate part of the longitudinal movement range of lid slider, where the positioning of lid is relatively unstable, as the lid is movable in both forward and rearward directions.
As a result, the conventional sunroof apparatus needs a complicate position holding mechanism that can keep a lid position from movements in both directions.
One may suppose a new arrangement for a lid to have a full-close position set at a front end of a longitudinal movement range of a lid slider, a tilt-up position at an intermediate location in that range, and a full-open position at a rear end of the range, so that a stable positioning of the lid can be effected at the full-close position by simply abutting the lid on a front end of an opening in a sunroof.
In the new arrangement, however, when closing the lid, as well as when opening, the lid experiences the tilt-up position, where it stops once. To close the lid to an end, an operation switch should be kept pressed. When the lid stops at the tilt-up position, its drive motor is stopped, with motor sounds interrupted. One may mistake to hear the interruption of motor sounds as an indication of an established lid position to be the full-close or full-open position. If it is mistaken to be an indication of the full-close position, one may goes out the vehicle, leaving the lid in the tilt-up position, which is unfavorable from the viewpoint of theft prevention or for fear of a possible invasion of rain or car washing water.
The present invention is made with such points in view. It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide a sunroof apparatus that can prevent a lid-open state from being mistaken as a closed state.
To achieve the object, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a sunroof apparatus comprising: a roof opening formed in a vehicular roof, with an opening plane extending in a direction; a lid member movable in said direction, between first and second ends of a movement range, to have a full-close position at the first end, where the lid member fully closes the roof opening, a tilt-up position, where the lid member has an end part thereof above the opening plane, a flap position, where the lid member has the end part thereof below the opening plane, and a full-open position at the second end, where the lid member fully opens the roof opening; a drive system for driving the lid member to move; and a control system for controlling the drive system so that the lid member is stopped to have the tilt-up position, when moving toward the second end, and kept from being stopped to have the tilt-up position, when moving toward the first end.